Tag: cross genre

It’s not that authors aren’t familiar with genres — although with the proliferation of sub-genres cropping up daily, it’s hard to keep up — but often it’s because they feel their books could fit more than one genre. They don’t want to be pigeon-holed. They don’t want to miss a potential audience. At the same time, picking a genre is expected. What to do?

First: get familiar with what’s out there.

One of the easiest ways is to look at a bookstore, whether it’s online or bricks-and-mortar, and see how they classify fiction. This changes a bit over time. (Anybody else remember when they had a “Chick Lit” section at Borders? Hell, anybody remember Borders?)

Here are some of the most common umbrella genres.

Action/Adventure — stories including epic journeys, lots of conflict, high stakes, some violence.

There are obviously lots of sub-genres for most of these categories. Also, I’ve left out Children’s/YA/New Adult fiction, simply because you can have these same umbrella genres within those categories — it’s more about the age of the protagonists rather than the subject matter, and the targeted age of the reader. So you can have YA paranormal romance, or Middle Grade sci-fi, or what have you.

Next, look at the “genre qualities” of your book.

Did you have a genre in mind when you wrote it? If not, given what you’ve just learned about the genres, and what readers expect from each genre, where might it possibly fit?

Most importantly, which of the above audiences would be the most happy with what you’ve written?

Example: Jennifer Crusie’s Welcome to Temptation.

It’s a book about two sisters who go to a small town to make a film. It involves a love story. There is also a mystery. There is also a decent amount of sex.

That said, it’s not really a mystery, despite the dead body and various machinations as the murderer is discovered. It’s not that difficult to solve, and it’s not the primary focus. Mystery readers, who are driven to figure out “who did it?” will not be satisfied at the dilution of the mystery with elements that they’d see as secondary: the love story takes up way too much real estate.

It’s also not an erotica. While the sex is steamy, the focus is more on falling in love and emotional intimacy than sex as a vehicle of character development: there are character development scenes with the heroine and the hero’s child, for example, or the sisters discussing their past. For someone looking to read erotica, this would seem extraneous, and possibly slow-paced or boring.

It is definitely a love story. The mystery elements and the sex both serve to reinforce the growth of the love between the protagonists. So the genre that makes the most sense is romance.

Another example: Jim Butcher’s Dresden File series.

The protagonist, Harry Dresden, is a detective, solving cases that usually involve murder on the mean streets of Chicago. He tackles a lot of epic adventures, giving it elements of Action/Adventure.

That said, he is also a Wizard.

They are definitely mysteries, taking a page out of the classic noir novels. It would definitely satisfy a lot of mystery readers… if they were also amenable to the magical/mystical features of Fantasy, which many might not be. Same with the action/adventure reader set.

Fantasy readers — specifically Urban Fantasy readers — would be very satisfied by the other-worldly aspects, the world building, and the magic and mystical figures. The action, adventure and mystery all work with the fantasy element. Harry shoots things with fireballs and magic spells as well as shotguns. He solves mysteries that may or may not involve fairies, necromancers, or mythological gods. It’s immersive, with world building so thorough that you are completely drawn in. Urban Fantasy is the best fit.

Finally: identify why you want to know.

There’s a difference between choosing a genre for a potential agent, for example, and choosing a category for a self-publishing listing.

When you’re writing a query, you want to show the agent that you have a sense of who your target audience is and where your book would most likely sell.

You might think “but isn’t that the agent’s job?” and indeed, said agent may have some opinions on how to better position your work. But if you don’t have any clue, and you just dump a book in his/her lap with the expectation that they will read through it and glean the positioning, it’s a harbinger of things to come. Tacitly saying “but that isn’t my job” when it comes to something as relatively simple as genre choice suggests that you’re really going to balk when it comes time to actually market and promote the thing.

For an agent, choose the most likely readership.

As I mentioned, mystery readers could enjoy Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files. But they aren’t the most likely readership. An agent will want to know what’s the most likely readership — who is the mostly likely to seek out this particular type of book, buy this type of book, and enjoy this type of book. Not someone who stumbles across this book and decides to give it a try on a whim, enjoying it more than he expected.

For self-publishing, you’re looking for the most likely category, and the least populated fit.

When uploading a digital self-published release, you’re allowed to choose several categories/genres for your novel. These are pretty fluid: bookstores like Amazon change their listings of sub-genres all the time, so it’s a bit of a moving target. But what you want is to choose a broad genre that fits your right reader’s expectations, just like you’d choose for targeting an agent. Then, you’re also going to choose a niche, preferably one that isn’t heavily populated, that also fits your novel.

If you have a mystery that involves a police detective, you could pick “Mystery, Thriller, and Suspense” as a category. Looking it up under Kindle Books, however, you will notice that it has 107,974 results offered — that’s how many ebooks use the same category.

The odds of you getting in the top 100, where many readers look for new authors, or anywhere near a “category bestseller” that will kick on the Amazon Recommendation Engine, is pretty paltry.

Look at the sub-category “Police procedurals” and the number of books specifically categorized as such drops to 4,844.

To really get specific, if you had a “cat sleuth”? The number of books drops to 23. You’d be in the top 100 by default! (Remember, if you don’t have a cat sleuth, don’t select it just to get a better category ranking. Getting bad reviews from dedicated niche readers who feel mislead isn’t worth the ranking boost, in my opinion.)

Remember, you can generally pick two categories. Try to hit one broad category, and one narrow niche.

It’s more art than science.

There isn’t a hard-and-fast way to figure this out, but hopefully these tips will give you a simplified approach to looking at what emotional satisfaction your work provides for genre audiences, and how to move forward. Don’t be afraid to take a stand — and don’t worry if you have to amend your stance later!

What do you think about the genre listings? How would you categorize your work?

Agents & editors have often shied away from things that can’t be cleanly categorized, simply because it’s “hard to sell.”

Many authors say they don’t want to be pigeon-holed. Their work is complex, layered, and incorporates elements from lots of different genres.

In a world where you no longer need to worry about where a bookstore clerk is going to shelve your novel (because, alas, physical bookstores seem to be going the way of the dodo) why worry about what “genre” your book should be categorized as?

Broccoli brownies. That’s why.

When I want a brownie, I want something luscious, decadent, and dessert-y. I want something that tastes so criminally delicious that I wonder if I’m going to be arrested for consuming it.

It’s about expectations.

When I’m tired and I want a light beach read, I get irritated when I see a candy-colored cover slapped on a “message” novel — where the author has a Big Point to make, and they want to prove that a light beach read can be highbrow.

When I want a steamy, fun romance, I get annoyed when I have to wade through a bunch of action and mystery, and the hero and heroine are barely in the same room for two-thirds of the book.

I want what I expected… and they go putting something extra, something they think will be spectacular. And it just doesn’t work.

Genre blends are difficult to write.

Some people might say that I’m too narrow a reader — their audience, certainly, would be more open minded.

The thing is, when cross-genre work is done well, I’m all over it, a very loyal reader. Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series is a mash up of classic noir mystery, mainstream suspense thriller in a home base of urban fantasy. J.D. Robb’s In Death series is a police procedural with plenty of steamy romance and futuristic sci-fi thrown in. And Marian Keyes can write books about death, cancer, domestic abuse, and addiction, and still be the queen of Chick Lit. I love every single one of these authors’ work.

That said — they are doing it well. Incredibly well. Even then, their series have gained momentum over time.

Genre blends are difficult to sell.

Granted, these are all traditionally published authors, with big New York distribution machines behind them. Still, they targeted the most likely audience for each.

In Death, despite being set in the future with neat stuff like flying cars, is marketed as mystery/thriller. Since the author is also Nora Roberts, goddess of romance writing, they also market it as romance, focusing on the continuing love story of the heroine and her husband. Of course, technically, it isn’t a romance — often, there’s no conflict as far as their love for each other (although sometimes there is, as a subplot.) But the real reason you read them is for the procedural: solving the crime.

If it was Joe Schmonsky instead of Nora Roberts, ten bucks says it would never be marketed as “romance.”

Marian Keyes is still pushed as a beach read. Re-hab has never been as funny as it is in Rachel’s Holiday. And while the horror of domestic violence in This Charming Man is truly harrowing, I still laugh with Lola, whose escape to the Irish countryside turns into a “tranny ley line” misadventure.

She’s always marketed as Chick Lit. Hell.. she invented it.

Nurture your art. Handle your business.

I will always say swing for the fences. Want to make a genre mash-up? Feel like creating a romantic comedy of manners set in a dystopian Poughkeepsie? Knock yourself out.

Just do it well.

And when you market it — pick a genre as your home base, one whose expectations make them the most likely to be open to your story. Don’t try to be all things to all people. You’ve only got so many resources. Narrow your scope.

If you’re going to genre blend, this is what you’re going for. Fulfill expectations, throw in something even more unexpected… but make it seamless.

If they want a brownie, make it a delicious brownie first… because if it isn’t, they won’t care what else is involved.

Your “receptive” readers will see what you’re capable of. The good news: they don’t just eat brownies every day — or read just one genre. Neither do their friends. So your “core” readers will share the amazing thing they’ve just discovered with every reader they know.